A Helping Hand Behind the Scenes
We love celebrating an occasion and putting up some festive decorations here at CH Towers. But if we’re honest, the last few Halloweens have been a bit of a flop. So, we were determined to kick-off the spooky season in a fun way.
Here’s how we created our very own ‘Thing’ to lend a hand around the studio!
None of our clients have specifically requested a mangled, cut-off hand before… can’t imagine why. So, hand on heart, we weren’t quite sure where to start. But that added to the fun and we learnt new and useful skills along the way.
Research, Test, then More Research
To really sell the idea, our goal was to feature a couple of shots with the hand completely detached. Luckily there have been a lot of iterations of ‘Thing’ over the years, but we found the best tips and tricks were from the BTS of Netflix’s ‘Wednesday’.
We wanted our version of the hand to be more feminine in its personification, similar to ‘Lady Fingers’ (‘Thing’s’ fiancé) from the original Addams’s Family series. This meant less of the scars and more of the vampy red nails.
Producer Lauren loves everything Halloween so of course, we had our cast sorted straight off the bat.
We did an initial test using a piece of green card for the backdrop, and to cover Lauren’s arm. A great first attempt, but it was missing a lifelike edge. Nothing a quick trip to Hobbycraft can’t fix!
Whipping out our VFX skills and layering some modelling wax around the edge helped create more of an illusion where the wrist was cut-off by the green.
A Trick of the Light
To avoid dedicating hours of time to each shot, we had to be clever with our approach. This meant filming a lot of POV or partial view angles that gave the impression of the hand independently running around the office without the need of a green screen. Set design also played a big part in how we captured the hand in-situ.
One of our personal favourites is the lollipop bursting out of the sweet box. It required a hell of a lot of double-sided tape and table arrangement, and let’s not forget about that spooky lighting. DOP Sam loved adding an extra bit of depth to scene, with a ‘bokeh’ effect and some warm orange tones highlighting ‘Thing’s’ best side.
A ‘Thing’ of Beauty
Once we had the shots, it was a case of keying out Lauren’s arm, adding camera movement, and increasing the speed to give the whole Thing an unnatural vibe. Couple this with some creepy music, a spooky colour grade, and we’ve nailed it.
So, if you ever need a disembodied hand to walk through your frame - who ya gonna call?
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